68Ga PET Ventilation and Perfusion Lung Imaging —Current Status and Future Challenges

Gallium-68 (68Ga) is a positron-emitting radionuclide suitable for positron emission tomography (PET) imaging that has a number of convenient features —it has a physical half life of 68 minutes, it is generator produced at the PET facility and needs no local cyclotron, and being a radiometal is able to be chelated to a number of useful molecules for diagnostic imaging with PET. 68Ga has recently been investigated as a radiotracer for ventilation and perfusion (V/Q) lung imaging. It is relatively easy to produce both V/Q radiopharmaceuticals labeled with 68Ga for PET studies, it offers higher spatial resolution than equivalent SPECT studies, the short half life allows for multiple (repeated) scans on the same day, and low amounts of radiotr acer can be used thus limiting the radiation dose to the subject.
Source: Seminars in Nuclear Medicine - Category: Nuclear Medicine Authors: Source Type: research